Michael

The Purpose of this website

I had my wedding at Villa Balbiano in October of 2022 and although it was the most magical day of my life, the wedding planning process was a nightmare. I worked with several planners recommended by the owner of Villa Balbiano and quite frankly they were both incompetent people who

Why Would You Ever Want to Work with This Company?

I noticed today that Sumptuous replied to my review on Google. The fact is, I terminated his services, which means he was fired. It's obvious this person has so much pride that he is blinded by the inept services he provided and wedding which he almost ruined. Let

A Careless but Big Mistake From Blunotte

There were two primary options for lighting and sound at Villa Balbiano, we ended up going with Blunotte Eventi. We were able to meet them in person to discuss what we wanted after we fired our planner and the team seemed competent. Discussions through email were organized and timely, and

Be Wary of Flying Bugs

No one told me this but I'm not sure there was another solution. By the time I finish my photos and wanted to snack on some Italian deli this table set up was dominated by bees and nats. I walked towards the table and was disgusted at the

How Much Does a Wedding Planner Cost

From what I've seen, a planner typically wants 10,000€ minimum to take on a project. The contracts generally state 10% of the total budget but what's ridiculous to me is these vendors we talked to wanted to charge extra for NDAs. There's a

The Tasting Experience

We struggled for a long time to finalize the tasting menu. There was actually no catering company at all with less than a few weeks to go until the big day. For some reason the communication just wasn't getting across to the vendors before I took over, and

The Gelato Experience

This gelato cart was the highlight of the evening believe it or not. Everyone loves gelato and our guests started having it from the pre-ceremony to the end of the night when the gelato owner had to leave. It didn't matter how cold it was, people still wanted

Jean Charles Doesn't Pay Attention to Details

For our pre-wedding event, we wanted to gift our guests grab bags. We designed these custom "Lago di Como" bags and as you can see in the correspondence, Sumptuous had a problem following details. Mistakes are fine, everyone makes mistakes, but when you know you've made

Jean Charles is a Liar

This correspondence between Jean Charles and I happened on Sept 23, 2022, less than 2 weeks away from the actual wedding date. What irks me in life is when people don't hold themselves accountable, and Jean Charles said in our last exchange, "We haven't made

Jean Charles Doesn't Know Design

The image that you see is a rendering of the main dinner event inside Villa Balbiano. It hosts 20 people on each side but when I started to handle the correspondence with the catering company, I was informed that this one long table was not feasible. I was shocked, not

Jean Charles Doesn't Know About Lighting

Once I started getting into all the wedding details myself (because Jean Charles was fired), it did occur to me that the proposed start time of 5/5:30pm might be too late. In October, the sun obviously sets earlier which affects the amount of natural light we get for

Jean Charles is Petty

After a lot of critique from my side to Jean Charles, it was evident that the word accountability didn't register with him. As seen in other posts, he deflects mistakes and in other cases lies about making them. The above image is an email from him where he

Jean Charles Didn't Do His Homework on Fireworks in Lake Como

Another issue we had with Jean Charles is that early on we stated we wanted to have fireworks at our wedding. Now this sounds bougie, I know, but we wanted to provide a spectacular memory for our guests. Quite literally, we wanted to go out with a bang. But come

Jean Charles "Knows" How to Plan Weddings

I want to share this communication because it's important to understand how the wedding industry works. Like many other freelance jobs, you pay a deposit, which we did. There were three installments, 9000€, 9000€, and the final payment was to be 8000€. We paid the first two amounts,

Trust Pilot Review

A friend recommended I post a review on Trust Pilot. Looks like I was the first one to review Sumptuous Events. I tried posting the same review on Google Reviews but the review was declined. Hopefully this new edit passes their policy team.